How hypersonic ballistic missiles could change the face of warfare as we know it

War is an incredibly complex thing. It’s so complex that, in the many years since we waged our battles with sharpened steel, many have lost sight of the simplicity of the fight itself. War is complicated because of the countless influences, internal variables within warring parties, and long-lasting ramifications of violence — but waging war itself is still a fairly simple enterprise: you destroy the enemy, their assets, and the infrastructure that supports them, and you keep at it until they give up, or there’s no one left to fight.

The United States, perhaps better than any other nation on earth, demonstrates the incredible value associated with finding varied methods to deliver this destruction. From rifles to airplanes, from submarines to satellites, everything about the American defensive infrastructure is designed to destroy the enemy before the enemy has a chance to destroy you (or, in point of fact, to deter them from trying at all). Technologies that one seemed so advanced they were relegated to science fiction are now common place on battlefields occupied by American troops, but ultimately, all of those tools are brought to bear in the very same way bronze age battle axes were: you destroy the enemy, their assets, and their infrastructure until the war is won. One could argue that some weapons are more humane, others too gruesome, but death remains the result regardless.